Grand jury declines charges in 1991 Arlington cold case arrest

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25-year-old Cynthia Gonzalez (Source: Arlington Police Department)

ARLINGTON, Texas - A grand jury has declined charges in a decades-old murder case that happened in Arlington.

The jury returned a "no bill" Friday in the case against 63-year-old Janie Perkins in the 1991 killing of Cynthia Gonzalez.

What they're saying:

"The Perkins family is grateful to the Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office and to the members of the Grand Jury for taking the time to conduct a thorough, evidence-based review," said D. Miles Brissette, the attorney for Perkins.

The backstory:

Perkins was arrested in November 2025 after detectives with the Arlington Police Department and students from the University of Texas at Arlington's criminology and criminal justice department reviewed the case.

At the time of Perkins' arrest, detectives said the students started asking questions about Perkins, which prompted them to review the original case files.

What they're saying:

Perkins' attorney said Friday's decision by the grand jury represented an "independent assessment of the evidence and its determination that the allegations presented did not warrant criminal charges."

"Their evaluation was grounded in the facts—not in the narrative advanced publicly by the Arlington Police Department and UTA," Brissette said. "We appreciate their commitment to fairness and to the integrity of the judicial process."

1991 death of Cynthia Gonzalez

Gonzalez, 25, was reported missing by her ex-husband on Sept. 17, 1991, after she left her Arlington home to meet a client. She worked as an adult entertainer, according to Arlington Police. Her vehicle was found abandoned hours later. Police were looking into the possibility that she had been kidnapped.

Five days later, her body, which had been shot multiple times, was discovered dumped on private property in a rural area of Johnson County.

The case remained unsolved for more than three decades despite numerous leads.